Comments on: The Story Simple? O Simple!

By: computer mouses

computer mouses — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:06:32 +0000

Cheers to the brilliant content contained throughout your blog, what will happen is a small test on your blog viewers. Who actually proclaimed this quote? . . . .Speak softly and have a big stick; you may go far.

By: A.K.Farrar

A.K.Farrar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:32:23 +0000

People keep trying to shoe-horn Shakespeare into the classical model (you should hear my rant on the very idea of tragic flaw when applied to Shakespear – or maybe not).

I can hardly think of a play by Shakespeare that isn’t ‘garlic’ rather than ‘onion’ – several interrelated elements joined at a root rather than ‘layered’ to a single core.

Re: Types – careful, he did write types – but the simplistic ‘stock’ character doesn’t reflect either Shakespeare’s or his contemporaries use of the concept (or, incidently, the Commedia …).

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:02:03 +0000

Feste rocks! One of the great Fool roles.

I agree with you that “protagonist/antagonist” is just not a very profitable frame for analyzing 12th Night. Viola/Malvolio is certainly wide of the mark–we could talk about Sir Toby/Malvolio, at least in terms of the subplot…but I just don’t think that leads us to anything interesting or illuminating. If we must talk about an antagonist for Viola, I’d pick Olivia, her rival for Orsino’s affections…except that no-one except Viola knows that there even _is_ a love triangle until Act V.